奥古斯丁与现代美学的兴起

St.Augustine and the Rise of Modern Aesthetics

一般认为,是两种观念确立了美学的现代形态:一是"无利害性",另一种是"审美静观"理论,而且这两种观念滥觞于18世纪夏夫兹伯里、哈奇森、艾迪生等美学家的思想体系中,在康德那里得到了确认。但是通过对奥古斯丁思想中"爱的教义"、"使用"与"享用"关系的分析,能够发现,奥古斯丁早已把"无利害性"、"审美静观"的理论囊括进其思想系统中去了。因此,现代形态的美学的先驱者们就不能再局限于夏夫兹伯里、哈奇森、艾迪生等人,而应该追溯到奥古斯丁,离开了奥古斯丁以及以奥古斯丁为代表的中世纪美学传统,现代美学的许多观念就找不到其源头。

Scholars argue that there are two concepts which formed the modem aesthetics, the one is ＂disinterested＂ and the other is ＂aesthetic contemplation＂. And the concepts are used in eighteenth - century British thought by Lord Shaftesbury, Addison and Hutcheson. This paper tries to analyze St. Augustine~ two key theories, viz, the dogmatics of love, the differ- ence of Uti and Frui, and to show that it was St. Augustine who promulgated the lexicon of the categories and terms that, some fourteen hundred years later, came to constitute the ＂disinterested＂ and the contemplation model of the theory of aesthetics. Therefore, people should trace the concept of ＂ disinterested＂,＂ aesthetic contemplation＂ to St. Augustine, otherwise people could not find the origins of Modem Aesthetics.